Louis C.K. Experiment --> $5 Video has $1 Million in Sales in 12 Days

[InfoGuy]

People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?

I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn't many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it.

So it's been about 12 days since the thing started and yesterday we hit the crazy number. One million dollars.

Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater

If this guy can sell 200k+ copies of his comedy show at $5 and rake in a million dollars without being hurt by piracy, how can the porn industry learn from this?

[Catalyst]

Yea.. this is kinda of old news.. but he has a screen shoot of his paypal account which is cool..

We have been using 5 dollar membership on girlrich.com for about 6 months and it is doing great.. People don't seem to mind spending 5 dollars.

[InfoGuy]

I started this thread because I saw another news story about it and noticed no one else here commented about it in the last 10 days.

For the non-believers, here's the screenshot.

[BIGTYMER]

Welcome to two weeks ago. We've been waiting for you!

Just kidding. Yeah it's pritty cool. He deserves it.

[MaDalton]

so whats king now - content or traffic? ;)

[Brujah]

I think one important bit is that Paypal is a very convenient way to pay. Perfect for an impulse buy. It's another thing entirely getting credit cards pulled out and filling out forms with a dozen pieces of information, even for $5.

Another is that he had a great deal of publicity going into it.

[SykkBoy]

You also have to understand, he's a very well known name with a dedicated fanbase.

With porn, it's a bunch of faceless guys behind a keyboard, so there is less guilt in stealing from a pornographer...

[ottopottomouse]

Hope he didn't sell one to marlboroack - that's a lot of money to have frozen.

[geedub]

I bought a copy, but in all honestly it's not like pay per scene or download hasn't been tried with porn.

[Due]

Originally Posted by geedub

I bought a copy, but in all honestly it's not like pay per scene or download hasn't been tried with porn.

I think the problem is the actual pricing of the clips or movies.

Also I haven't really seen many that offers any solutions / apps to let people stream on their tvs / game consoles or other media centers.

The closests I've seen is wasteland targetting the rocko player or whatever the name is.

[CurrentlySober]

Originally Posted by MaDalton

so whats king now - content or traffic? ;)

Neither - Its 'Poo'...

[mynameisjim]

I like Louie CK but this was clearly an example of a genius viral marketing campaign, not really some new business model.

When he originally did it, he portrayed himself as clueless and acted like he didn't understand the internet or torrents or any of this new age technology and was simply taking some wild shot in the dark. Louie CK is obviously a smart guy and understands media, he's a writer, director, and producer on top of being a stand up comic, so he totally understands new media and is well aware of what torrents are and how they work.

I give him credit for coming up with what essentially was a genius viral marketing campaign. What other comic has had his new DVD on the front of most news sites for nearly two weeks? He's a very smart and savvy guy and knew exactly what he was doing contrary to the initial message he put on his website saying he didn't understand how any of this stuff works.

He basically acted dumb and tricked the torrent crowd into promoting him for free. Pretty genius and not for the reason most people think.

[fris]

smaller is sometimes better

[tony286]

My name is jim said it best. Louis ck i had read never does the same routine twice. Thats someone with alot of skill and who is very smart.

[kane]

Originally Posted by tony286

My name is jim said it best. Louis ck i had read never does the same routine twice. Thats someone with alot of skill and who is very smart.

He is probably my favorite comic working today. I also think part of the success is that he just asked people not to be assholes. Instead of taking the stance of, "If you steal it I will sue you." He just asked people not to take it and explained that it wasn't cheap or easy to do this and he feels it is a fair price and people responded.

I think artists who have the respect of their fans can do things like this. There are a lot of entertainers in comedy, movies, music and literature that try to milk their fans for every penny. Those who don't and who are honest with them and try to give them something great at a fair price can do things like this.

A band like Pearl Jam comes to mine. The self distribute their albums now and still sell a decent amount. When they tour they will sell out 12,000-25,000 seat venues everywhere they go because they are cool with the fans, don't overcharge and work hard to deliver a great product.

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by kane

and work hard to deliver a great product.

I think this is the bottom line, and it rules over all other points. If you have great product, people will feel good about paying for it. If you don't, then it sucks for them.

This only applies to the digital world, where anything can be easily stolen. Obviously, you won't find out if a washing machine is a piece of shit until you use it -- or read reviews first.

[NYRangers]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

You also have to understand, he's a very well known name with a dedicated fanbase.

With porn, it's a bunch of faceless guys behind a keyboard, so there is less guilt in stealing from a pornographer...

Bingo. We have a winner. Good luck to any no name trying to do the same.

Plus his content is unique.

It's 2012 and it seems like filtering out those with brains and a business sense will still be as easy as last year.

[NYRangers]

Originally Posted by CurrentlySober

Neither - Its 'Poo'...

New year new schtick maybe?

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

You also have to understand, he's a very well known name with a dedicated fanbase.

With porn, it's a bunch of faceless guys behind a keyboard, so there is less guilt in stealing from a pornographer...

seriously that the stupidest statement i have ever heard

do you really believe the pornstars don't have fans

remember you site owners are the record labels

the pornstars are louis C.K.

this is the model they use to bypass you guys and make made money

add in crowdfunding and a famous pornstar could earn 20k+ per scene easy.

[Jakez]

Adult needs a way for people to buy a membership fast and easy like a Paypal transaction. How has that not been done yet? Imagine how much more money everyone would make if a surfer could just click a couple buttons and charge his card/bank.

Wonder if it would be OK to do $29.95/mo paysite subscriptions or one-time charges with Paypal but every payment received there's a cheap tshirt or something sent out. So you're techincally selling something tangible.

[SykkBoy]

Originally Posted by gideongallery

seriously that the stupidest statement i have ever heard

do you really believe the pornstars don't have fans

remember you site owners are the record labels

the pornstars are louis C.K.

this is the model they use to bypass you guys and make made money

add in crowdfunding and a famous pornstar could earn 20k+ per scene easy.

until this statement

look, we know you don't mind stealing from people because you flat out don't give a fuck. You're one of those clueless assholes that feel that because you pay for your internet access that everything digital should be free for anyone to use as they see fit.

You're a useless little cocksucker who doesn't give a shit about anyone. You're the kind of guy that would fuck a hooker and have 10 explanations of why you shouldn't have to pay her.

At least when most people steal, they will say "fuck paying for something" and not pretend they are contributing to the greater good. They know they are stealing. You're in this perpetual state of denial.

Face it, no one gives a shit about stealing from generic no name, no face pornographers.

You just typed a bunch of words on a screen and think you formed an argument, but you're just a brain dead piece of shit who would have been better off dropped off in a dumpster behind a high school during prom in your fetal stage.

This Louis CK model will not work for pornstars. It might earn them a few bucks, but most will just steal the material, whack off to it and then go back to playing WOW with their friends while demanding more cheese doodles from their moms.

In theory, your idea would work, but in practice, it doesn't because no one feels guilty about stealing from a pornographer.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

This Louis CK model will not work for pornstars. It might earn them a few bucks, but most will just steal the material, whack off to it and then go back to playing WOW with their friends while demanding more cheese doodles from their moms.

In theory, your idea would work, but in practice, it doesn't because no one feels guilty about stealing from a pornographer.

your the site owner of course it would not work for you

but porn stars are getting paid 2k per scene tops

do you know how small a percentage of an average twitter followers you would need to exceed that amount.

with the right intensives you could easily get people to pay shit loads of money for a crowd funded scene.

just because you don't know how to do it doesn't mean i don't know how to do it.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

until this statement

look, we know you don't mind stealing from people because you flat out don't give a fuck. You're one of those clueless assholes that feel that because you pay for your internet access that everything digital should be free for anyone to use as they see fit.

oh and BTW

want to find a single quote from me that ever talked about getting stuff for free

i talked about using torrents to time shift content i paid for

[garce]

Anyone here want to try pulling a stunt like this using PayPal and see how well it works out for them?

Louis CK using Paypal: Great publicity and lots of fun! YOU using Paypal: Seized accounts, grief, and stress.

[papill0n]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

until this statement

look, we know you don't mind stealing from people because you flat out don't give a fuck. You're one of those clueless assholes that feel that because you pay for your internet access that everything digital should be free for anyone to use as they see fit.

You're a useless little cocksucker who doesn't give a shit about anyone. You're the kind of guy that would fuck a hooker and have 10 explanations of why you shouldn't have to pay her.

At least when most people steal, they will say "fuck paying for something" and not pretend they are contributing to the greater good. They know they are stealing. You're in this perpetual state of denial.

Face it, no one gives a shit about stealing from generic no name, no face pornographers.

You just typed a bunch of words on a screen and think you formed an argument, but you're just a brain dead piece of shit who would have been better off dropped off in a dumpster behind a high school during prom in your fetal stage.

This Louis CK model will not work for pornstars. It might earn them a few bucks, but most will just steal the material, whack off to it and then go back to playing WOW with their friends while demanding more cheese doodles from their moms.

In theory, your idea would work, but in practice, it doesn't because no one feels guilty about stealing from a pornographer.

notice how he doesnt quote all your posts lol


hey gideon you left out the good bits matey

here let me repost em for ya cunt

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

look, we know you don't mind stealing from people because you flat out don't give a fuck. You're one of those clueless assholes that feel that because you pay for your internet access that everything digital should be free for anyone to use as they see fit.

You're a useless little cocksucker who doesn't give a shit about anyone. You're the kind of guy that would fuck a hooker and have 10 explanations of why you shouldn't have to pay her.
.

that is such an accurate description of you gideon - pasty little weasel that you are

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by papill0n

notice how he doesnt quote all your posts lol


hey gideon you left out the good bits matey

here let me repost em for ya cunt



that is such an accurate description of you gideon - pasty little weasel that you are

notice how you dodged the question

want to post a single quote that backs up that misrepresentation

post one quote were i said my internet connection gives me the right to take whatever i want

like i said i defended the right to use torrents to timeshift content i paid for.

You guys are the only ones who keep asking me to show you the solution for free.

[Klen]

Originally Posted by garce

Anyone here want to try pulling a stunt like this using PayPal and see how well it works out for them?

Louis CK using Paypal: Great publicity and lots of fun! YOU using Paypal: Seized accounts, grief, and stress.

I remember how they suspended minecraft account because of "toomuch"money he was receiving.

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by InfoGuy

Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater

If this guy can sell 200k+ copies of his comedy show at $5 and rake in a million dollars without being hurt by piracy, how can the porn industry learn from this?

THe fatal flaw of the assumption behind your question is one of scalability. If everyone does this, the results won't be the same. Indeed, a sense of entitlement will kick in and content will go back to being stolen.

The problem with digital content has always been that of scale and content eventually becoming GENERIC

What makes this experiment SUCCESSFUL is its NOVELTY. That is, truly, the answer to your question: if people focused on quality instead of quantity and focuses on specific niches, they should be okay regardless of the threat of piracy

[Profits of Doom]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

You also have to understand, he's a very well known name with a dedicated fanbase.

With porn, it's a bunch of faceless guys behind a keyboard, so there is less guilt in stealing from a pornographer...

His fans are also doing a great job of policing his content for him. Some guy uploaded the video to a torrent and they slammed him for it, even posting his real name and address in an attack that would make 4chan proud...

[Jakez]

Originally Posted by Profits of Doom

His fans are also doing a great job of policing his content for him. Some guy uploaded the video to a torrent and they slammed him for it, even posting his real name and address in an attack that would make 4chan proud...

Exactly. This was only a success because of the originality and way it was done. If this became popular even with other comedians with a fan base it would quickly lose it's novelty.

[Jim_Gunn]

Originally Posted by gideongallery

seriously that the stupidest statement i have ever heard

do you really believe the pornstars don't have fans

remember you site owners are the record labels

the pornstars are louis C.K.

this is the model they use to bypass you guys and make made money

add in crowdfunding and a famous pornstar could earn 20k+ per scene easy.

He was absolutely right. Louis CK has a lot of fans and good will built up only because he is a uniquely talented comedian who was slaving away for so many years working within the existing system of comedy clubs, comedy specials and his tv shows and acting jobs over the years. That coupled with his clever viral marketing campaign, the still relative novelty of direct download model and the publicity it generated are what made his gambit a success.

If you think any significant number of currently working porn chicks are both well known enough in the general populous and clever enough to pull that off you're delusional. 99% of porn stars have a strictly worker bee mentality and will only show up to do some specific sex act or shoot for a certain amount of time and money. Like most young people- hell like most people in general- they need to be told what to do. Doesn't matter how many opportunities may exist to go into business for themselves with webcams or web sites working from the comfort of their own home, it will rarely happen.

Using the power of the internet, viral marketing, crowdfunding, giving away free content to build an audience and other modern techniques including branding bugs as you are so fond of saying, are all legitimate techniques to attract attention and hopefully sales. But it's not going to be indiviudal porn stars or individual musicians doing it. It currently is and maybe soon will be more clever porn companiy owners, web sites or producers taking advantage of those techniques. Other than in a few cases notable only for their being exceptions to the rule does it actually happen like in the well known case of Radiohead's online album release or Louis CKs comedy show. That's why it makes international news each time something like this happens- because it is so remarkable and rarely seen. Your silly Robin Hood like idea of musicians or porn stars disintermediating the record labels or porn studios & sites and selling direct to the fans is a pipe dream.

[Jim_Gunn]

Originally Posted by gideongallery

oh and BTW

want to find a single quote from me that ever talked about getting stuff for free

i talked about using torrents to time shift content i paid for

No one- not even you- uses torrents to "time shift" what they already paid for. I mean maybe it has happened a few times like if someone watches a tv show on cable or HBO that they pay for and the signal goes out due to a storm or something, that person may download the same tv show from a torrent later to catch up on the half-missed show. The other 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the millions of torrent downloads daily are simply people getting something for free that they otherwise would have had to pay for, and this done with the specific intention of avoiding spending money.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by Jim_Gunn

No one- not even you- uses torrents to "time shift" what they already paid for. I mean maybe it has happened a few times like if someone watches a tv show on cable or HBO that they pay for and the signal goes out due to a storm or something, that person may download the same tv show from a torrent later to catch up on the half-missed show. The other 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the millions of torrent downloads daily are simply people getting something for free that they otherwise would have had to pay for, and this done with the specific intention of avoiding spending money.

56% of all torrent traffic is tv show idiot

your pulling numbers out of your ass

every person who has cable and is downloading those shows are timeshifting content they paid for because they paid for that cable

torrents are a replacement for the pvr

A lot ot technically savvy people have been using them as such specifically because they are superior

it basically an infinite hard drive pvr that records every show and never forgets them, no pvr on the market does that.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by Jim_Gunn

He was absolutely right. Louis CK has a lot of fans and good will built up only because he is a uniquely talented comedian who was slaving away for so many years working within the existing system of comedy clubs, comedy specials and his tv shows and acting jobs over the years. That coupled with his clever viral marketing campaign, the still relative novelty of direct download model and the publicity it generated are what made his gambit a success.

If you think any significant number of currently working porn chicks are both well known enough in the general populous and clever enough to pull that off you're delusional. 99% of porn stars have a strictly worker bee mentality and will only show up to do some specific sex act or shoot for a certain amount of time and money. Like most young people- hell like most people in general- they need to be told what to do. Doesn't matter how many opportunities may exist to go into business for themselves with webcams or web sites working from the comfort of their own home, it will rarely happen.

Using the power of the internet, viral marketing, crowdfunding, giving away free content to build an audience and other modern techniques including branding bugs as you are so fond of saying, are all legitimate techniques to attract attention and hopefully sales. But it's not going to be indiviudal porn stars or individual musicians doing it. It currently is and maybe soon will be more clever porn companiy owners, web sites or producers taking advantage of those techniques. Other than in a few cases notable only for their being exceptions to the rule does it actually happen like in the well known case of Radiohead's online album release or Louis CKs comedy show. That's why it makes international news each time something like this happens- because it is so remarkable and rarely seen. Your silly Robin Hood like idea of musicians or porn stars disintermediating the record labels or porn studios & sites and selling direct to the fans is a pipe dream.

why don't you show every model you shoot this post

fact is i am helping independent musicans do exactly that so the statement that individual musicians can't or won't do this shit is total bullshit

will every one of those muscians make a million dollars hell no

however i can say with absolute certainty they will always make more money then they would with a label.

everything the label can do can be bought with money. And you can easily raise exactly the same amount of money the label will give you using crowdfunding.

the same is true for pornstars
the twitter followers of a pornstar are the same people following muscians
and the techniques used will work just as effectively.

[AllAboutCams]

nice he will just need to wait 20 years to get this out of paypal.

[Jim_Gunn]

Originally Posted by gideongallery

56% of all torrent traffic is tv show idiot

your pulling numbers out of your ass

every person who has cable and is downloading those shows are timeshifting content they paid for because they paid for that cable

torrents are a replacement for the pvr

A lot ot technically savvy people have been using them as such specifically because they are superior

it basically an infinite hard drive pvr that records every show and never forgets them, no pvr on the market does that.

Using your number, 44% of torrent traffic is downloading content other than tv shows- mostly commercially released music, movies, games, software and apps that they clearly didn't, and would prefer not to have to pay for. Of the 56% of torrent traffic downloading tv shows, 55% of them either don't actually pay for cable or satellite tv at home- as you know there are many people nowadays bragging that they "cut the cord"; or they do pay for some form of basic cable but not for the specific channels the shows they are downloading were broadcast on; or they are college kids on campus who neither have paid for cable nor even have a television in their room for that matter; or they are downloading shows that were not even broadcast in their country in the first place; or they are downloading compilations of tv shows containing episodes that never aired on tv in the first place. None of which would be covered under your catch-all excuse.

I get the idea of the theoretical convenience and practicality of a limitless worldwide accessible DVR that records everything for all time that anyone can access. If there was way to make it work for both end users and content creators it might be a great thing. Maybe in the near or medium term future the industry will figure it out. But as it stands now it's a literal free-for-all. Not even the advertising supporting the tv shows in the first place survives the editing and encoding process of the self-entitled end users.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by Jim_Gunn

Using your number, 44% of torrent traffic is downloading content other than tv shows- mostly commercially released music, movies, games, software and apps that they clearly didn't, and would prefer not to have to pay for.

1. so now your trying to argue that no movie ever airs on tv ever

remember all those movies would also be covered by timeshifting

2. of course all the other fair uses like backup/recovery format shifting don't exist in your made up (pull your numbers out of your ass ) arguement

3. your ignoring all the autorized distribution on torrents which includes countries that have extended fair use because of a piracy tax (like canada and 26 other nations).

Of the 56% of torrent traffic downloading tv shows, 55% of them either don't actually pay for cable or satellite tv at home- as you know there are many people nowadays bragging that they "cut the cord"; or they do pay for some form of basic cable but not for the specific channels the shows they are downloading were broadcast on; or they are college kids on campus who neither have paid for cable nor even have a television in their room for that matter;

seriously your pulling numbers out of your ass again

37% of all torrent traffic is tv shows that are broadcst on the free air ways.

that doesn't include the extended channel range of basic cable.



More than 60% of Americans subscribe to cable television. Sixty-one percent of the U.S. population age 12+ subscribe to basic cable television service at home.

given those facts (not numbers pulled out of your ass) even if 100% was the maximum you would get to is 9.6% torrent traffic is what your talking about.

or they are downloading shows that were not even broadcast in their country in the first place; or they are downloading compilations of tv shows containing episodes that never aired on tv in the first place. None of which would be covered under your catch-all excuse.

nope never said it was

however the fair use of access shifting does cover it

and many countries have established the fact that 1 download != 1 lost sale (first step)

if the item was never for sale (not available in that country) then there is no sale to lose and ergo there is no infringement.

I get the idea of the theoretical convenience and practicality of a limitless worldwide accessible DVR that records everything for all time that anyone can access. If there was way to make it work for both end users and content creators it might be a great thing. Maybe in the near or medium term future the industry will figure it out. But as it stands now it's a literal free-for-all. Not even the advertising supporting the tv shows in the first place survives the editing and encoding process of the self-entitled end users.

seriously mother fucker go back and read the testimony of jack valenti when the mpaa tried to get the supreme court ruling reversed by congress

http://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm

But you don't need that now as long as you have this. Indeed, when my son is taping for his permanent collection, he sits there and pauses his machine and when he is finished with it, he has a marvelous Clint Eastwood movie and there is no sign of a commercial. It is a brand new movie and he can put three of those on one 6-hour tape.

timeshifting gave me the right to have a permanent collection of tv shows
and gave me the right to skip all the commercials

That why none of the tv commercials on pvr count toward neilson ratings. No advertiser paid a single penny for timeshifted tv shows since the vcr first came out.

stop trying to take away rights i already have.

[nextri]

I pirate TV shows, because there is no option for me to pay for them. When they reach TV here, it's often a year later than the US release. Had there been a legal alternative where I could pay for it, and watch it when it's aired in the US, I'd be happy to pay for it. But it would have to be as convenient as it is to pirate it.

I paid for the Louis show through paypal, then downloaded it with newzbin because that gave a faster download speed than his servers.

[The Ghost]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

You also have to understand, he's a very well known name with a dedicated fanbase.

With porn, it's a bunch of faceless guys behind a keyboard, so there is less guilt in stealing from a pornographer...

[AllAboutCams]

Originally Posted by nextri

I pirate TV shows, because there is no option for me to pay for them. When they reach TV here, it's often a year later than the US release. Had there been a legal alternative where I could pay for it, and watch it when it's aired in the US, I'd be happy to pay for it. But it would have to be as convenient as it is to pirate it.

I paid for the Louis show through paypal, then downloaded it with newzbin because that gave a faster download speed than his servers.

perfect answer same here.

[His Infernal Majesty]

Originally Posted by gideongallery

however i can say with absolute certainty they will always make more money then they would with a label.

They wouldn't ALWAYS make more than with a label. Perhaps some would, and perhaps labels can take too much. But in the end, guaranteed money is a lot different than money earned through risk. And the artists generally get guaranteed money in place of zero risk and investment of their own money. The rapper Master P made a very smart deal back in the mid-90s, when we was about to be signed. After selling 200,000 copies of his records on his own, he turned down all advances and opted for a straight pressing and distribution deal with Priority Records in return to keep a bigger share (80% I believe) of his future record sales. He made a ton of money, but he also gave up millions in guaranteed money to do so. In the end, he went bankrupt, but that's not really relevant.

Louis, himself said, "Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you."

He also put up a considerable amount of money in production costs (near $200,000), development for the website, and significantly more work and time put into the final product. That is a huge risk!

No one is really stopping any of these artists, rappers, musicians, comedians, porn stars, etc from making their own money sans a label, but there is also a daunting amount of work and risk ahead of them in production costs and other areas that most just choose to go for the guaranteed money that a label provides.

It's not always so cut and dry.

[V_RocKs]

I know of a few hundred porn stars that could pull this type of thing off individually.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by His Infernal Majesty

They wouldn't ALWAYS make more than with a label. Perhaps some would, and perhaps labels can take too much. But in the end, guaranteed money is a lot different than money earned through risk. And the artists generally get guaranteed money in place of zero risk and investment of their own money. The rapper Master P made a very smart deal back in the mid-90s, when we was about to be signed. After selling 200,000 copies of his records on his own, he turned down all advances and opted for a straight pressing and distribution deal with Priority Records in return to keep a bigger share (80% I believe) of his future record sales. He made a ton of money, but he also gave up millions in guaranteed money to do so. In the end, he went bankrupt, but that's not really relevant.

Louis, himself said, "Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you."

He also put up a considerable amount of money in production costs (near $200,000), development for the website, and significantly more work and time put into the final product. That is a huge risk!

No one is really stopping any of these artists, rappers, musicians, comedians, porn stars, etc from making their own money sans a label, but there is also a daunting amount of work and risk ahead of them in production costs and other areas that most just choose to go for the guaranteed money that a label provides.

It's not always so cut and dry.

the labels do very little innovative marketing

they currently outsource so much of the promotion that it now possible buy the same exact promotion yourself if you have money

i have personally done this with artist, after they got a development deal offer i have had them do a crowdfunding campaign (with the advance as their goal), done properly on average they get 23.53% more money from the crowd.

all without having to give up 90% to the label in the future.

Right now given those condition yes i can guarrentee that a new artist will make more by not signing with the label

maybe the labels will get off their asses and start to use the innovative techniques, but with the current suckers game of give us 90% and cover all cost out of your 10% they really don't have an insentive to validate the alternative that the artist can do themselves.

[CaptainHowdy]

That is a lot of people pretending to like Louis C.K.

[CarlosTheGaucho]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

until this statement

look, we know you don't mind stealing from people because you flat out don't give a fuck. You're one of those clueless assholes that feel that because you pay for your internet access that everything digital should be free for anyone to use as they see fit.

You're a useless little cocksucker who doesn't give a shit about anyone. You're the kind of guy that would fuck a hooker and have 10 explanations of why you shouldn't have to pay her.

At least when most people steal, they will say "fuck paying for something" and not pretend they are contributing to the greater good. They know they are stealing. You're in this perpetual state of denial.

Face it, no one gives a shit about stealing from generic no name, no face pornographers.

You just typed a bunch of words on a screen and think you formed an argument, but you're just a brain dead piece of shit who would have been better off dropped off in a dumpster behind a high school during prom in your fetal stage.

This Louis CK model will not work for pornstars. It might earn them a few bucks, but most will just steal the material, whack off to it and then go back to playing WOW with their friends while demanding more cheese doodles from their moms.

In theory, your idea would work, but in practice, it doesn't because no one feels guilty about stealing from a pornographer.

[Profits of Doom]

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

I know of a few hundred porn stars that could pull this type of thing off individually.

Porn stars can't even get guys to buy them shit off their wishlists on Twitter, let alone getting a guy to pay for a porn clip. Maybe someone like Belladonna could have very minor success at this because she has kind of a unique relationship with her fans (just judging off twitter feeds), but for the most part when these girls get on Twitter and their real personalities come out it ends up hurting them in the end and actually alienating them from their fans. There is definitely such a thing as too much access...

[CamTraffic]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy

You also have to understand, he's a very well known name with a dedicated fanbase.

With porn, it's a bunch of faceless guys behind a keyboard, so there is less guilt in stealing from a pornographer...

ding ding ding! we have a winner
can't compare both things, at all...

[John-ACWM]

Originally Posted by InfoGuy

I started this thread because I saw another news story about it and noticed no one else here commented about it in the last 10 days.

For the non-believers, here's the screenshot.

[kane]

I think some of the very well-known pornstars or even those slight few very popular camgirls could put something together where they took donations to raise money and shot a custom scene. I don't doubt that they could raise a decent amount of money and then shoot that scene for those who funded it. They could even use that scene to further promote themselves. However, I think it would likely be a one time thing. It is hard to get the fans of pornstars to pay $30 per month to join their site much less get them to pay for a single scene that they then have to wait potentially weeks for it to be shot and edited together. People might be willing to go there once, but likely not more than that.

there is a huge difference between a guy like Louis C.K and a pornstar. Louis (or any number of well-known comics) puts together an act and then releases it like this. He then hits the road and does a bunch of dates promoting it and getting paid for those stand up dates. He likely will eventually sell the broadcast rights to some cable channel(s) and he likely will release it on DVD or at the least license it to Netflix for streaming.

A pornstar would shoot their scene, give it to the fans that paid for it then maybe put it up on their site or offer it for sale on its own. There are limited markets and you can bet your ass they aren't going to have her on CNN, The View and a ton of radio and talk shows talking about it. So here ability to make money from it would be limited and she would need to make another very quickly and I have the feeling the crowdfunding market would dry up pretty quickly.

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by kane

I think some of the very well-known pornstars or even those slight few very popular camgirls could put something together where they took donations to raise money and shot a custom scene. I don't doubt that they could raise a decent amount of money and then shoot that scene for those who funded it. They could even use that scene to further promote themselves. However, I think it would likely be a one time thing. It is hard to get the fans of pornstars to pay $30 per month to join their site much less get them to pay for a single scene that they then have to wait potentially weeks for it to be shot and edited together. People might be willing to go there once, but likely not more than that.

there is a huge difference between a guy like Louis C.K and a pornstar. Louis (or any number of well-known comics) puts together an act and then releases it like this. He then hits the road and does a bunch of dates promoting it and getting paid for those stand up dates. He likely will eventually sell the broadcast rights to some cable channel(s) and he likely will release it on DVD or at the least license it to Netflix for streaming.

A pornstar would shoot their scene, give it to the fans that paid for it then maybe put it up on their site or offer it for sale on its own. There are limited markets and you can bet your ass they aren't going to have her on CNN, The View and a ton of radio and talk shows talking about it. So here ability to make money from it would be limited and she would need to make another very quickly and I have the feeling the crowdfunding market would dry up pretty quickly.

i personally know hundreds of totally unknown musicians are doing this every year.
None of them get on the view, or CNN for what they are doing but they still make a good living

You get 100% funding when a small percentage chooses to pre fund you.

The model would give a girl the same sort of money she would get for being a vivid girl /contract girl without the restrictions.

That the point.

BTW there are techniques to sustain it, other income sources once the content is produced. Just because you don't understand them well enough to exploit them doesn't mean they don't exist.

It a very arrogant position to come to the conclusion that just because you can't see the solution the solution must not exist.